Hi Rose, This is a quick addition for your question "Also, I'm looking for another keystroke which will deselect everything. That is to say, I want no items in a folder or list selected." Just press the escape key and all you selections will be deselected. Should have been obvious, since pressing escape is the general way to cancel out of options in dialog windows. Incidentally, I came across this because I was checking my Preview Bookmarks menu and, in an old version of the VoiceOver Getting Started Guide for Leopard, had bookmarked the section on "Non-Contiguous Selection". This is a very nice feature of Preview: you can create bookmarks with the same shortcut keys that you use to create bookmarks in Safari (Command-D). What's neat about this feature is that when you're in Preview and move to the Bookmarks menu on the menu bar, navigating to any of the bookmarks that you created will open the PDF document you bookmarked to the page you selected. It doesn't matter if you're not in the same directory or if you have long since forgotten the document you bookmarked; if the bookmark is there, Preview will find the document and open it. The menu arranges your bookmarks in alphabetical (sort) order, so you can add a prefix code to group these if you want to organize things this way. For example, if you are reading ProTools tutorial documents in Preview, you could put "PT:" in front of these bookmarks. If you want to move bookmarks to the top of the menu, insert a character prefix like the hyphen character at the start. (I also use this trick to name frequently used iTunes playlists so they will get listed first in sort order). I'll paste in what the section on non-contiguous selection said, since it also references the escape key to deselect: <begin quote> To select multiple items: 1 Press VO-Shift-F3 to turn off cursor tracking. Note: You can press this command again to turn cursor tracking back on when you’re finished selecting. 2 Press the Escape key to deselect anything that is already selected. 3 Move the VoiceOver cursor to the first item you want to select and press VO-Command- Space bar. 4 Move to the next item and press VO-Command-Space bar. Continue until all the items you want are selected. If you want to deselect an item you selected, return to it and press VO-Command-Space bar. <end quote>
This post has been sitting around on my desktop for a while, so I'll send it off. Cheers, Esther On May 13, 2011, at 06:43, Esther wrote: > Hi Rose, > > Tim and Colin have already given you an answer on how to select > non-contiguous items in a list, by turning cursor tracking off (VO-Shift-F3) > and using VO-Command-Space. (And I'll just add to what both of them said that > the usual gotcha is to remember to turn cursor tracking back on again with > another VO-Shift-F3 when you're done.) Tim already implied this in his > answer, but the VO-Command-Space key sequence you use to select is a toggle > action, and can be used to de-select any items that have been selected. And > as Colin has answered, you can check the items that are selected at any time > with VO-F6, so if you find that you need to make an adjustment, just navigate > to the object you want to de-select, and use VO-Command-Space again. > > Colin also gave you the hint that if you are in a very long list of items > (e.g., in Finder, or perhaps in the Songs table of iTunes where you are > selecting tracks for a playlist that you will create with the Command-Shift-N > "New Playlist from Selection" shortcut) it is convenient to lock your > VoiceOver keys (VO-Semi-colon), and then just arrow up and down the list > pressing Command-Space to select/deselect and F6 to check your selection (and > then possibly turn cursor tracking back on with Shift-F3, or if you have > pressed Semi-colon to turn lock off first, use the full VO-Shift-F3). > > To deselect all items, I would use the second method that Tim outlines: with > cursor tracking on, I move to an item, which selects it (and if you have > cursor tracking on, only the item you have moved to will be selected.) Then > I would use VO-Command-Space to de-select that item, and check with VO-F6 > that nothing was selected. In practice, just turning cursor tracking on gets > you out of the multiple selection issue. Similarly, the other way that > people select multiple items (in contiguous blocks, without turning cursor > tracking off) is to simply hold down the Shift key as they arrow down the > list. Again, you can check what you selected with VO-F6. The fact that > selection is a toggle action means that you can be creative about how you > select items. For example, if you want to select nearly everything in a > contiguous list, except for one or two items, you can hold down your Shift > key and arrow up or down. Then you can turn cursor tracking off > (VO-Shift-F3), navigate to the few items you want to de-select (VO-Up or Down > arrow), and de-select them with VO-Command-Space. You can also arrange items > so that you take the minimum number of actions by either filtering the > results (e.g., in Finder, use Command-Option-F to move to the search field, > and type in terms to match, thus cutting down the listed results), and/or > sorting the list of the displayed items (e.g., if I wanted the 5 most recent > files with a certain name, I'd type the name in the search field, then after > interacting with the table I might navigate to the "Last Opened" column and > sort with VO-Shift-Backslash (on an English input keyboard; in another > language I might have to use VO-H-H and look for the sort command under the > tables menu entry)). If you don't find the view parameter you want to make > sorting easy, you can always add it to your table by bringing up the View > Options (Command-J) and checking what you want (e.g. "Date Created", "Date > Modified", etc.) -- even just for temporary display and use. I find that > with the combination of filtering and sorting, I can often get away without > having to do non-contiguous selections, and when I do need to select > non-contiguous items in a list, I can cut down my work. Often I can just > filter a result, select all (Command-A), and then modify by de-selecting the > few items that I don't want . > > If you want to read an example of selecting non-contiguously, with > step-by-step instructions in order, and all the other tips in the same place > (including the tips about locking VoiceOver keys and using VO-F6 to check), > try reading the following posts from the archive: > • "Tips on on Non-Contiguous Selection [was Re: selecting specific tracks in > itunes]": > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg05301.html > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > On May 13, 2011, at 05:24, Colin M wrote: > >> Hi there! >> Oops! Me Bad! >> The lock vo keys command is! >> vo+semi colon >> Sorry about that :] >> Colin >> I'm far too bad for Heaven! >> The Devil is afraid I'll take his place! >> >> Begin forwarded message: >> >>> From: Colin M <velocity.focu...@googlemail.com> >>> Date: 13 May 2011 16:16:43 GMT+01:00 >>> To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>> Subject: Re: Uncommonly used keystrokes for selecting items? >>> >>> Hi Rose! >>> Further to what Tim said! >>> After turning off cursor tracking, if you lock the vo keys with >>> command+semi colon you'll only have to down arrow through your list and >>> when you've got to one of the items to select then just press command+space! >>> You can also check what you've selected by just pressing the f6 key, do not >>> forget to unlock vo keys with the same command as you used to lock them! >>> And put on cursor tracking! >>> hth Colin >>> Qapla! >>> Chegh chew jaj Vam jaj Kak >>> >>> On 13 May 2011, at 02:03, Tim Kilburn wrote: >>> >>>> Hi Rose, >>>> >>>> To select non-contiguous items: >>>> >>>> 1. Navigate to the first item in your list. >>>> 2. Press VO-shift-f3 to turn off Cursor Tracking. >>>> 3. Navigate to the next item then press VO-cmd-space. >>>> 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until everything you wish to select has been >>>> selected. >>>> 5. Don't forget to turn Cursor Tracking back on with VO-shift-f3 as >>>> leaving it off gets rather frustrating until you figure out that you've >>>> forgot. Yes I speak from experience. >>>> >>>> To Deselect all: >>>> >>>> • I don't know a specific keystroke but you could do either of the >>>> following: >>>> >>>> 1. close the specific window then re-open. >>>> >>>> or >>>> >>>> >>>> 2. Make sure that Cursor Tracking is on then simply navigate once up or >>>> down in the list and then only the item you are on will be selected. >>>> Next, press VO-cmd-space to deselect the item you are on and then nothing >>>> will be selected within that area anymore. >>>> >>>> HTH. >>>> >>>> Later... >>>> >>>> On 2011-05-12, at 6:17 PM, Rose Morales wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi all, >>>>> There are two selection keystrokes I'm wondering about. I used to know >>>>> them, but my memory escapes me. It's been awhile since I needed them, and >>>>> I've been involved in so many tech projects since tackling a thorough >>>>> understanding of Voiceover two years ago. One is selecting multiple >>>>> items. I know shift up and down arrow will do this. However, i'm looking >>>>> for something more complex. The keystroke I'm thinking of allows you to >>>>> select multiple items at once which are not in order. For instance, >>>>> perhaps I want to select items 1, 2, 4, 5, and 9. This keystroke will let >>>>> me check the items I want. Also, I'm looking for another keystroke which >>>>> will deselect everything. That is to say, I want no items in a folder or >>>>> list selected. >>>>> Any help would be appreciated. >>>>> Rose >>>>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
